Personal tools
You are here: home   Issues   The Silence of the Bees   Border truths
 

Border truths

Letter to the Editor - From the March 19, 2007 issue of High Country News by Maren Hopkins
I really enjoyed the article “One Nation Under Fire.” I am a contract archaeologist working at the San Miguel Gate, monitoring the archaeological sites during the construction of vehicle barriers. I thought that your article was very true to the situation. So many people seem to underestimate the issues along the border and on the reservation. The border is truly a unique atmosphere, both politically and socially. I think that the borderlands region that spans the Tohono O’odham nation is an even more distinct environment due to its history, the landscape and its geographic isolation. The isolation and openness of the desert in this area is strongly juxtaposed by the feeling of being watched constantly. We often see people on the south side of the fence spying on us through binoculars from hilltops. At first glance, it looks like an open empty space, but the more time you spend there, the more you see signs of human activity (this ironically follows the lines of archaeology as well, which is why I’m really out there). I love the area, I love the desert, and I love the truth of the situation.

Maren Hopkins
Tucson, Arizona
  1. Roadless-less | Judge Clarence Brimmer is determined to bring down...
  2. Commitment issues | White House pledges further collaboration with tri...
  3. Can't see the forest for the skyscrapers | The nation's capital gets stimulus funds to fight ...
  4. "A deeply troubled idea from the start" | Valles Caldera's experiment in public lands manage...
  5. Frack 2, Scene 1 | New York City fights drilling in its watershed, an...
  1. Roadless-less | Judge Clarence Brimmer is determined to bring down...
  2. Socialism and the West | Despite our reflexive fear of the word "socialism,...
  3. The Lost Art of Listening | Can the Arapaho language be saved from extinction?...
  4. Return of the pod man | Arizona farmer Mark Moody raises mesquite trees fo...
  5. Is the BLM practicing unsafe CX? | The Bureau of Land Management used a large number ...

JOIN THE High CountryEmail Commons

Award-winning content delivered weekly.

RSS FEEDS

Keep in touch! Find us on Facebook & Twitter
 
© 2009 High Country News, all rights reserved. | privacy policy | powered by Plone | site by Groundwire and Web Collective | design by our very own Ryan Foster